On The Course October 25th

Sunrise over Medina

 We have had a busy month with projects throughout the golf course. The projects are starting to come together and we are looking at some very good progress on the Portico and the Comfort Stations. DMJ Asphalt will be in early next week to raise the cart path around the portico and it will start to get finish trim and stone on the fireplace. The comfort stations have been tiled and grouted and we will be seeing the exterior finished this week. The new building at the Maintenance facility will start to take shape this week and they will be finishing the new roof on the old building.

The golf course has been a little wet the past couple of days with the rain we have had but should be drying out today and we have a couple good days of golf left in October. We are watching the forecast very closely and will be looking at closing the course around our normal schedule in the first week of November. We will keep the Championship Course open as long as we can allowing the crew enough time to cover all of the greens before they freeze. The Executive Course does not get covered and could be open longer. The driving range tee will close on Monday for the season and we will have room on the Executive Course for warm up.

Concrete at the Portico being set

More demolition at the Maintenance Facility

The crew has been busy this fall maintaining the golf course

Nick Walters getting one last deep tine in on the fairways

On The Course September 24th, 2015

We have a dreary start to this Thursday morning and will be working moving some items out of the shop and into a storage bin. The rain is supposed to let up around 7am and then there is a chance of spotty showers the rest of the day. We are planning on mowing and rolling greens later this morning to prepare for the Guest Day this afternoon. This will all be dependent on the weather as there still is some pretty good rain in western Minnesota. We have only received 0.15 inches of rain so far and the course is still fairly dry.

2 Green Complex

On The Course September 23rd

Topdressing fairways has been helping and we are starting to see some depth.

 We mowed and rolled greens this morning and have not seen the rain predicted for today. Sheldon is working on mowing rough and trying to keep up with all the growth we are still getting. We have yet to see any frost this year and it looks like the weather will be warm for the next 7-10 days. The Comfort Stations are taking shape and the contractor is putting the shingles on the roof today. The steel beams for the portico should be onsite on Tuesday and we should see a lot of work done on the Covered Porch area.

The perimeter of the golf course will start taking shape the end of this week and next week as Rachel finishes spreading topsoil on the development and the crew finishes installing water and sewer. We should see water and sewer being installed to the Comfort Stations sometime next week but will not be able to open them until late October.

On Course Restroom starting to take shape on #4

On Course Restroom on #14 Tee

Fernando using the Granden to Scarify greens on the Executive 9

Reynaldo mowing Fairways

On The Course September 16th, 2015

Jim Kopp and Cal Franklin on 18 during The Bad Pants Open!

We are mowing greens this morning and will be rolling later in the day. We have a few truck loads of sand that we will be spreading on fairways today. Kurt is setting the course pin locations today and will be planting some spruce trees.  The carpenters will be working on the comfort stations and should have 4 and 14 framed up. Once they finish the comfort stations they will begin the framing on the Covered Porch. We will be seeing a lot of progress over the next week.

There were some spotting showers rolling through this morning and we could see some later tonight. The weather has been warm and the greens have healed in from aerification very nicely. We should be able to finish topdressing fairways this week and will look at deep tining the fairways the second week of October.

On The Course September 11th, 2015



Blowing aerification plugs off the green



We have most of the course aerified and will be finishing some topdressing today. We are mowing greens this morning and detailing bunker banks. We have three aerifiers solid tining 14, 15, 16 and 18 fairways. The crew worked a couple of long days this week to aerify the golf course. We were slowed down a couple times with some untimely rain but we still managed to get a lot of the process completed. The greens came out of the process very well and are being mowed this morning.

 

I will be doing a project update on the blog very soon. We have a lot going on the next couple weeks and there will be more interesting items to show.

Corey Heasley and Nick Walters put down over 250 tons of sand on Tuesday and Wednesday

The crew did a great job of cleaning up plugs by hand on tees and greens

On The Course August 28th, 2015

Block foundation for the Comfort Station on 14 Tee

 The crew is out preparing the course for the weekend. We are mowing greens, tees and fairways today. We will be rolling later this morning if the rain holds off. We have a system moving in from the south but seems to be breaking up as it gets closer.

There has been some progress made on the project this week and we will start seeing some more in the coming week. The foundations are being built at the comfort stations as well as the covered porch. These areas will be backfilled early next week.

Block being delivered for the fireplace at the Covered Porch

Footings set for the Covered Porch

On The Course August 25th, 2015

Comfort Station construction has started on #14 Tee

We should see some very good progress this week with our construction projects. The rain last week delayed the start of the projects until this week. Monday the crew was able to get the foundation excavated and the footing poured. Interesting and nerve wracking bringing a full Cement Truck onto the golf course. We have designated a haul road that will also be the sewer and water path so we should be able to minimize the disrupted area. The excavating crew will be moving onto the Covered Porch addition on the clubhouse this morning so expect some construction traffic passing the Proshop most of the day. 

We are mowing greens, tees and fairways this morning. Monday we were able to complete a complete verticut and topdress on greens. This will help firm them up a little and smooth out the ball roll. We have had a some very good wind the past couple of days and the crew will be working on cleaning up some small debris on the golf course.

I will be trying to keep the blog updated daily as the projects get into full gear. If you have any questions on the status of the projects feel free to contact the Grounds Department at anytime.

On The Course August 13th, 2015

Alfredo rolling greens

 We have a couple light passing showers this morning. The crew is out mowing greens, tees and fairways. Bunkers are being raked and Nick is setting pin locations on the Championship Course. Corey is mowing up the executive course and we will be spraying the executive course later this morning.

Should be a hot and muggy couple of days leading up to the weekend. We will have a busy week next week with several events during the week and Women's and Senior's Club Championship next weekend. Shingobee will be starting the construction project next week and work will begin on the Portico and Comfort Stations.

Light topdress and drag this past Tuesday

Sand on the left brushed on the right!

On The Course August 1st, 2015

We are mowing and rolling greens this morning. Kurt and Reynaldo are setting the course for play and hand watering greens. We are looking at another great day with a slight chance of storms late in the day. The moon has been big and bright helping the crew getting started in the dark. We are spot watering some fairways this morning and checking irrigation heads. Enjoy the weekend!

On The Course July 30th, 2015

Great stretch of weather this week.

 We are mowing and rolling greens today. Nick Walters is working on finishing the deep tining of the fairways. He is working on 6, 7, 8 and 14 today. That will wrap up the deep tine aerification on the fairways and we will be looking at another round of sand topdressing in 2 weeks. The weather forecast looks about as good as it could be for the next couple of days as we enter August. We will be starting some of the Capital Projects on the course over the next couple of weeks and we have a Town Hall Meeting scheduled for August 6th at 7pm.

We have had a couple good Thunderstorms over the past couple of weeks and have not seen a lot of significant damage. We have seen a few trees get hit by lightning and we might have to remove a couple trees as well as some limbs. We will monitor the trees over the next couple of weeks and determine the best route to take going forward. We had a couple trees between 12 and 13 that have some significant bark blown off of the tree. Some of these storms also brought heavy winds and we have seen a couple larger trees show some stress cracks from the wind. We will keep an eye on these and make any necessary removals as soon as possible.

Tree on 13 that was struck by lightning

On The Course July 24th, 2015

Corey Heasley topdressing greens on Tuesday morning

 We have started this Friday off with a little bit of rain this morning. We have received 0.35 inches of rain so far and the storms are clearing. We have a possible chance of some more light rain this afternoon. It should be a hot and humid day once the sun comes up. The crew has been delayed this morning but are heading out to mow green, rake bunkers and prepare the course for play today. We will be a little delayed this morning but should be back on time quickly.

We were able to get our topdressing done on Tuesday this week and it has been really beneficial for us this summer. We started on summer deep tine on fairway to help with surface drainage and we have complete a few fairways this week and will finish the rest up early next week. Should be a great weekend for golf even with the heat and humidity.

Nick Walters on the Weidenmann Deep Tine Machine

Matt Haughey rolling a long putt towards the hole

Member/Member Champions Matt Haughey and Tim Herbert

Moises Lopez aligning tee markers.

Jeff Smith (on left) made his first perfect shot with an ACE on #17 during the Member/Member

On The Course July 18th, 2015

Blowing Branches off Greens!

 We received 1.5 inches of rain this morning which included some very strong winds. We have some damage to the exterior of the clubhouse and Pool area but we do not have any large trees down. There are a lot of smaller branches and debris throughout the golf course. The crew is working on clearing off greens and bunkers. We have a few pulling larger branches to the cart path edges and will be picked up later this morning. Kurt and Fernando are running trash pumps around the course getting some of the low areas pumped out.

We are planning on getting most of the debris cleared from the fine turf areas and then we will be mowing greens and getting the course set for the Member/Member Tournament this afternoon. The weather is clearing off and now the golf course needs some time to drain and dry out. The crew very busy this morning and we should be able to get things back in shape pretty quickly.

We have a lot of debris to clean up this morning.

On The Course July 17th, 2015

Trash Pump earlier this week moving water out of a low area on #14

 Member/Member Tournament this weekend. We are mowing and rolling greens this morning. Fairways, tees and large rough areas will be mowed today. The course has dried out well from the rain earlier this week and we only saw a trace of rain last night. The crew will be working on bunkers later this morning after the fine turf areas are mowed.

We had 1.7 inches of rain earlier this week and Corey and Kurt did a great job of getting a lot of the low areas of the course pumped out and ready for play. The large transfer pumps have been working pretty good down on 2 Green. They have been running the past couple of nights to try to get the pond level as low as possible before the next rain event. We are getting closer to finish grade on the Executive Course Project and should be seeding the areas next week. We will be installing some irrigation and then fine tune the finish grade.

There has been perfect conditions for Turfgrass Diseases this week and we have seen some activity in some of our test plots on the executive course. On Tuesday morning I took a couple pictures of Dollar Spot mycelium growing in some tire tracks and a footprint depression. It may not sound too exciting to most but it was a pretty cool TURF GEEK moment. Why nature behaves the way it does is pretty cool.

We are looking at some pretty extreme heat conditions this weekend with a possibility of storm activity. The course is playing pretty good right now and we should have some great golf this weekend. All shots count on the back nine of the Member/Member. Always a fun finish to the tournament.

Cottony mycelium from the fungus Sclerotinia homoeocarpa, Dollar Spot

Turf Geek picture of the week! Dollar Spot mycelium in a foot print on the Executive Course

Kurt Wacker handwatering collar on Practice Green #1

On The Course July 13th, 2015

A few puddles in the rough on #7 fairway

 We are mowing tees and cleaning up some debris from the storm last night. We received 1.7 inches of rain last night and the course is pretty wet. We will be cart path only today for our outside event. We have a PGA Junior event on the Executive Course this morning. The crew will be mowing greens later this morning and will finish raking bunkers. Corey is going to be running some trash pumps moving water out of some low areas before the temperatures get too hot this afternoon.

Pond between 7 and 2 higher than normal but the transfer pump will bring it back down later this morning.

On The Course July 7th, 2015

Pond on #7 is higher than normal but it is draining

 We are mowing greens this morning and will be rolling them later today. We received 2.5" of rain yesterday morning and the course is pretty saturated. The greens have drained fairly well but we still have some standing water in some rough areas. We will be cart path only this morning and will look at going off the path later today. The pond on 7 Fairway is pretty full this morning but is starting to drain down. The development has a large water pump moving water from the outlet point to the culvert that heads west of the golf course. As the pond level drops the low areas on 6 and 5 will drain down also.

Sheldon is mowing rough today and will try to get as much of the dry areas done today. Fairways and tees are being mowed today. The crew will be filling range tee divots on part of the range tee this morning. The bunkers have washed out a little and they are still drying out. The crew will be working on raking them and fixing the edges of the bunkers later today.

Sunny cool day today!

On The Course July 2nd, 2015

We are adding some fill material to #8 on the Executive Course

 We are mowing bunker banks this morning and the greens will be rolled later this morning after the dew has had a chance to burn off. Fairways and tees are being mowed today. Corey and Kurt are working on spot watering the fine turf areas of the course and Nick will be changing pin locations. Range tee is set up on the turf for today as we took a break off the turf yesterday and utilized the hitting mats. We will be using the mats on occasion the rest of the summer to give the turf tee a little break and to aide in recovery of the turf.

We are looking to have some perfect weather coming up this weekend for the 4th of July. Fireworks are scheduled for Saturday night at the club and we have a couple member events this weekend. We have been working on a couple areas of the Executive Course and will be working on finishing those projects next week. We are creating a small berm area between the golf course and the development to the south. This area includes a fairway expansion on #6 as well as a new tee. We need some fill material for the New Maintenance Facility and we were able to negotiate moving some material near #8 Tee on the Executive Course. With the new building we are going to have to relocate #8 tee later this fall and we had an opportunity to get some free material to complete this project. This area will be finish graded next week and reseeded and will have a minimal impact on the play of the executive course. We have temporarily closed 6, 7, and 8 on the Executive Course while the crew is working on moving material. We will have those holes open again for the weekend.

On The Course June 26th, 2015

Early morning Coyote visit

 We have had a very busy week this week with a couple outside events and some great weather. The crew is doing a great job of preparing the course daily for play. We are mowing and rolling greens this morning and Nick Walters is setting pin locations. We have been doing some hand watering of the greens and tees this week. The fairway mowers are out this morning and Corey will be spot watering some fairways and bunker banks.

The development to the west of the golf course is starting to take shape and we will be working closely with them to help with screening the golf course and minimize the impact on the golfers. They are just about done grinding trees and should have that done before the end of the week. They have had some very good weather to get a lot done so far and will be putting in some extra time when the weather is nice. The hours of construction on the site are from 7am to 7pm and will have some impact on the golf course.

We had Sky Candy Studios out early this week to take some aerial photos and videos of the golf course. Will Wanahalla will be working putting some video clips together for marketing and for the website. We have taken a brief look at some of the pictures and video and they look very good.

Kurt Wacker spraying #5 Tee

Sky Candy Studios was out early this week taking aerial video and pictures of the Golf Course

On The Course June 18th, 2015

Nick Walters with the Pink Shirt mowing IM Rough

We have a Guest Day this afternoon with a 1:15pm Shotgun. We are mowing greens and fairways this morning. Once the greens are mowed and the surface has dried we will be rolling the greens. We have been topdressing the greens weekly and with the heavy dew this morning we cannot roll the greens until they dry up. The crew is working on push mowing and trimming bunkers banks.

The Development construction started this week and there have been a quick change to the west side of the property. The barn has been cleaned out as well as a significant portion of the tree clearing that is necessary for the development. After being on this course for over 10 years the typical views I have been used to are changing. The look we are seeing in the picture below opens up the view of the golf course from 2 down into 3 fairway. As the development progresses we will be adding a significant amount of trees on the perimeter of the golf course to help with screening. We have been able to save some trees that are right on the property boundary and will be working with the developer to try to keep as many as possible. We will also be working with them on some berms that can separate the development from the golf course and help with screening.

Different look down from the approach bunker on 2 to 3 fairway.

The Tree Feller made quick work of the woods to the west of #2